Human Resource Blog

The manager or supervisor should simply tell the employee to stop. The majority of companies have rules that employees will not discuss private information, including salary.

In some situations, for example, when employees are trying to form a union, if an individual employee wants to share his or her salary information with another person, they can. But there is no protection for an employee who is constantly badgering others, for any reason.

Even if there was no rule against salary discussions, this behavior has become offensive and uncomfortable for coworkers. This is a performanc eissue — the employee needs to stop, or be disciplined or terminated. Once she is given that choice, she will probably quit bothering her coworkers.

Your last full sentence raises a really interesting point of constitutional law. Actually, there is no labor law that directly addresses the display of religious artifacts in the workplace. Employers are required to make reasonable accommodation for an employees sincerely held religious belief. So, for example, Mennonite women may be permitted to wear long skirts instead of uniform pants, if their religion so dictates. However, we are not aware of any religion that requires the display of artifacts in the workplace. In fact, this might well be seen as infringing on the rights of other workers, who do not share the religion. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the federal law prohibiting discrimination based on religion, also protects workers from proselytizing — from people trying to convert them at work. A lawsuit on this might well go all the way to the US Supreme Court.

The same basic issue is involved in the rest of the post. Yes, this woman sounds like a humorless old drone. However, many employers have rules against conduct that is offensive to coworkers. When the coworker complains, HR is probably right in backing her up. Each employer can set their own standards on what is acceptable in the workplace, as long as they are within the law. Many employers would tolerate almost any joke as long as it was not racial, agest or sexist and did not involve sex or death. That leaves a very, very wide latitude of humor.

Sadly, homicide is the 2nd highest cause of death in the workplace and it is increasing. So many employers discourage jokes about killing coworkers, and rightfully so. Most companies have rules against making threats or suggesting violence against employees, even in joke.

What passes as youthful hijinks at one place of employment may be totally unacceptable at another — or vice versa. During the height of the Anthrax scare, when many people including members of Congress were receiving deadly spore in the mail, one of our HR pros worked with a young jokester. This young man thought it would be funny to mail envelopes full of white powder to his boss and other top managers, with a note inside that said, \\\\\\\”You are dead.\\\\\\\” Unfortunately, he was terminated immediately and his conduct reported to the police. Even the victims of this ruse admitted that it was meant to be funny, rather than threatening. Unfortunately, it was a clear violation of company policy.

Every corporate culture is different. This workplace seems to be one of good-natured fun, and it sounds like this lady just does not fit in. However, the employer has a responsibility to ensure that jokes do not target protected groups (ie based on race, color, disability, age, sex, national ancestry or religion) or condone violence. For jokes that fall outside of that range, the HR department would be well within their rights to say, \”This cartoon is acceptable under our company standards.\”

This is probably a violation of the federal ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act. The ADA prohibits employers from making employment decisions including hiring, firing and demotion based on an employees disability, or a perceived disability. The key word here is perceived. The employer seems to be afraid that the employee is not healthy (which may be true) and is therefore taking actions against him — which is not legal, as long as the employee is performing up to standards.

This employee would be justified in contacting the federal EEOC, which enforces this law, at www.eeoc.gov.

Each 401k has a designated administrator who should handle these issues. Retirement benefits including 401ks are heavily regulated under federal law. The federal EBSA or Employee Benefits Security Administration enforces these regulations. We could not begin to cover all the regulations regarding this situation.

At a minimum, the terminated employee should receive a written notice in a timely manner describing the options available under the 401k plan for transferring the funds or taking a lump-sum payout. These documents should also contain a warning about the tax liability of a lump sum payout.

If previous employees still have active 401k accounts, the employer must make a good-faith effort to locate the employees and contact them by mail. It is not recommended that the employer use these funds in any way.

Read more about this topic at: http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/compliance_assistance.html

Yes, this is completely true, legal, ethical and above-board. It does not even violate any best practice in HR. An employer can make any day they like mandatory. There is no federal or state law in the US that employers have to give workers holidays off, with or without pay. An employer can even terminate any worker who does not show up on the holiday.

Many employees will scream that this is unfair. They want to enjoy the holiday by cooking out at the lake with some friends. But lets think about that scenario. They probably plan to pick up some last minute items at the grocery store on the way. They may grab a breakfast sandwich at a drive through, or rent a boat at the lake. They may catch a movie later. Some people will even make it a long weekend and stay at a hotel. If the barbeque gets out of control, they will expect the police and fire department to respond. If they break their arm and go to the hospital, they will certainly expect it to be fully staffed. This means that all of those employers — retail stores, restaurants, movie theaters, hotels, boat rentals, police and fire departments, hospitals and more — must have employees working. Not all of those employees are volunteers. Many of them would rather be home enjoying the holiday with their families, as well. But they realize that working on holidays is part of the job.

Thousands of employees — perhaps millions — work every holiday, and we should all be grateful for them!